On February 17, 2007, an intoxicated off-duty Chicago police officer, Anthony "Tony" Abbate walked behind the bar of Jesse's Shortstop Inn and pummeled, punched and stomped 125-pound bartender Karolina Obrycka. Her "crime" was to refuse serving any more liquor to the burly Abbate because he was too drunk.

That unprovoked beating by Abbate led to a precedent-setting finding this November by a federal court jury in Chicago that the city, the Chicago Police Department (CPD) and Tony Abbate had engaged in a "code of silence" to try and minimize the incident, protect Abbate and prevent justice from being served to Obrycka.